Apple announced new MacBook Pro models at its “hello again” event Thursday. The first to arrive on shelves is the new “entry-level” 13” MacBook Pro, which is the model that does not feature the new Touch Bar or Touch ID.

We were able to get our hands on the new standard 13” MacBook Pro for an unboxing and teardown and here is what we found (image gallery below).

Some noteworthy observations from the teardown:

Solid State Drive module is removable

Bottom was more difficult to remove than previous generations, but it was not glued

Speaker module needs to be removed to pull SSD back

SSD had very strong tape covering the interface port

Laptop automatically turns on when you open it regardless of pressing power button; it also turns on automatically when plugged in with an open lid, according to Apple

Thanks for the information I appreciate it. I’ve been major Mac advocate, but I am starting to lose that commitment. Tired of their SSD (with minuscule storage) and removal of warranty if you change it. I was told very recently, if I bought a newer MBPro and updated RAM, warranty could be voided. I previously put an effective 3 TB Samsung SSD and increased the RAM in an older MacBook Pro and couldn’t have kept going if I hadn’t. Apple’s changes leaves me sad and mad. Considering Windows laptop.

Anyone else notice that — unlike the touch bar version — this version doesn’t have those speaker openings on the bottom. I wonder what the difference in sound design is exactly between these two versions. I reckon they’re using the extra space for the larger battery…?

Bandwidth isn’t everything. Particularly if this storage system has been specifically designed to maximise paging performance. Latency improvements and dynamic block size handling may still provide benefits that the SATA consortium haven’t addressed.

Based on this tear down, what do you think are the prospects for aftermarket mods to add missing ports to the new MacBook Pro 15? I’m thinking maybe turn two of the four USB-C ports on one side into USB-A and Thunderbolt2. It would mean a slight case mod and depend on available space inside, of course.

And then you could mod the screen down to 1024 x 768, put a dark filter in to reduce the maximum brightness, remove the track pad altogether, and fit a less powerful, heavier battery – may be NiCad or even lead acid.

It may be possible. It’s certainly possible with the post 2012 systems but as Liam said it won’t be cheap because it’ll more than likely come from a broken laptop which is being sold for parts until they enter common circulation.

Now Apple is moving away from glowing logos, there’s scope for a shiny coating on the back of the LCD backlight, with internal reflection to increase screen brightness. What’s on the rear of the LCD panel?

And that the Evo will cost at least half the cost of the Macbook itself. Reminds me of a page about I think the Xeon E5 – a single chip for more than a laptop. (Of course, that’s nothing compared to the E7-8890 v4 24-Core for a cool 10K and change.)

It’s for a development machine and I like to keep everything in board. I have almost 800GB now and I want new machine to last 3-5 years. They’re not meeting demand for high end dev machine with their current specs.

Agree – someone apparently said they don’t 32GB because it would be expensive in terms of battery life. I’d like to have an option for a 32 GB machine that’s an inch thicker (more battery, probably better ventilation too). Now, I don’t know if that “more complicated memory architecture” would only require more power *if* they put more than 16GB in it (could they still make a “insanely-thin-long-battery-moderate-memory” machine for “everyone else”?

I also wonder how much it would really cost them to make multiple case molds? Do they use different ones for the TouchBar/non-TouchBar models?

If they did the “inch-thicker-more-battery” layout right, they could also maybe have an option of having a 2.5-inch drive in place of one of the “extra” cells.

There were several articles on the RAM limitation yesterday. 32 GB of RAM doesn’t make sense in laptops yet.. Powering all that RAM that is not needed and seldom used kills battery life. Laptops are always about trade-offs.

Apple didn’t switch to PCIe until the late 2013 models. The mid 2012 and early 2013 models are both still SATA based (basically mSATA), which is why OWC had replacements for those and not the more recent models until recently.

Macs and Windows PCs use RAM in different ways. Although 16GB of RAM might be a minimum amount you want to run your Windows box well with, on a Mac, 16GB of RAM will be more than you need and you won’t run into any issues. I’ve had to use my 2011 MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM for a period of time and had no issues (I almost forgot I had to downgrade), something one would never have been able to do with a Windows box.

You’re joking aren’t you?
I can tell you from upgrading more than a couple of macs, 4gigs is sufficient only for basic computing tasks and only provided you have a ssd inside. Try booting El Capitan or Sierra on a 4gb mac with the standard 5400RPM Toshiba…. This takes forever. Then try to get Photoshop running….

If you have the 13“ Mbp with 256GB SSD and you use program such as photoshop and want to do some pro editing on it, it will cause some problems… As I experienced today.. ;ohh and is the ssd changeable on the 13″ one?

A 256GB SSD would be great for Photoshop and “pro editing”. It’s the RAM you have that’s inadequate probably, though even 8GB should be fine if you aren’t doing a ton of other stuff. But getting the 16GB RAM upgrade would’ve been smart since you can’t upgrade that after purchase.

The Touch Bar models have a soldered SSD, so you’re stuck with it unless you have this non-Touch Bar model. But there won’t be any replacements available for awhile.

Macs last a long time.Don't plunk down your hard earned money on a new Mac when an upgraded Mac can run faster than a new Mac. We have the best upgrades and support for Macs:OWC MemoryThe easiest and most cost effective way to get the most from your Mac. Open and create more at one time with less slowdowns.OWC SSDsSSDs are up the 91 times faster than a hard drive. Unleash the true potential of you Mac by upgrading to an OWC SSD. OWC Install Videos guide you step-by-step so you can experience the blazing performance difference an OWC SSD offers.OWC External DrivesEasily expand your storage with durable external drives from OWC. From bus-powered portables to massive capacity desktop models, our external drives are time-tested and industry trusted to provide you great reliable storage whatever your needs may be.OWC Optical DrivesWho says the optical drive is dead? Optical storage offers a great way to archive data long term, and Blu-ray media offers a tremendous amount of storage in a single disc. Watch Blu-ray movies to experience near studio master image quality.Got questions? OWC can help.Our award-winning U.S. based customer service is at the ready to help you with any upgrade questions you may have. We're available online and on the phone 24/7. Say hello today and find out what your Mac can do.